In my dreams about your death,
typically I am driving
through dense landscape.
Twisty tree limbs echo
the car’s treacherous journey
away from your burial.
In the hot Honda, I bicker
with friends of yours and mine–
our way of expressing grief.

Usually, at a certain point,
a deer leaps
onto the earthy road.
I step on the brakes,
don’t hit the ethereal creature.
The deer avoids dying,
giving us the happy ending
that had escaped us.

Austin Alexis attended Adelphi University and has taught at Nassau Community College and Queensborough Community College. His work has been published in a number of Local Gems anthologies and in several Nassau County Poet Laureate Society Review issues, as well as in Paterson Literary Review, J Journal, and elsewhere. He has read his work in the Oceanside Reading Series and at other Long Island venues.  

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